


Hoar Leaves in the Glassy Stream

by Quinara



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Genre: Bechdel Test Ficathon, Gen, Poetry, Promptfic, commentfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-09
Updated: 2010-10-09
Packaged: 2017-10-12 13:20:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinara/pseuds/Quinara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A girl played by the water... [Extra warning for suicide.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hoar Leaves in the Glassy Stream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eleusis_walks](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=eleusis_walks).



> Written for [](http:)the Bechdel Test Ficathon, in response to eleusis_walks' prompt _Hamlet_ \- Ophelia, Gertrude - _down by the water_.
> 
> Sorry about the awful Shakespearean dialogue.

A girl played by the water - years ago  
She sat with flowers, Brother and his friend  
Not far away, but somewhere out of sight.  
The Queen was walking, taking in the air,  
And saw the girl sat by the creek alone.  
She worried for her, long unused herself  
To walking anywhere without a train  
Like that which followed her in silence now.  
"Ophelia," she called, "Art thou quite safe?  
Pray, why art thou alone here on this bank:  
The water by thy side, dost thou not see  
Its danger for a girl as young as thou?"

The girl looked up and saw the stately Queen,  
But could not recognise her from the court,  
For as she was so young she had not been.  
"I must ask how you know my name, madam,  
For we have not been introduced, I think."

The servants in the garden gasped as one,  
But unlike them, no insult took the Queen.  
She laughed and said, "'Tis true, fair maid, in faith.  
My name is Gertrude and thy family  
Is one which I am well acquainted with:  
Thou hast thy mother's aspect, plain to see."

Ophelia then bowed her head, ashamed,  
"Forgive my words," in penitence she asked,  
"I oft forget whom I must know and whom  
My parents would prefer for me to fear.  
Please take this chain of daisies in repair."  
She offered up the flowers, earnest gift,  
And Gertrude gracefully accepted them.  
"In answer to your question, I am safe;  
I know the water's danger and the weight  
That all my clothes in water would become.  
I sit here to enjoy the smells and sight  
Of all the flowers bright in bloom near here:  
A girl must educate herself in all."

"Well said, Ophelia," the Queen replied,  
"I hope thy study much improves thy mind  
And brings thou happiness when thou hast grown."  
And with these words the Queen then took her leave.

.

There are no words to utter as they stand  
Together by the bank, Ophelia  
And by her side the Queen, acquainted now  
Officially by schemes of one dead man.  
Her years of study all have come to naught  
But what she may express without a word  
By off'ring pansies in a crowded room.  
The Queen may only watch as still the girl  
Stands on the bank and casts her flowers down,  
A life of learning scattered in the flow.

"No happiness for me," Ophelia  
Informs the Queen, in case she did not know,  
Before she steps herself into the glass,  
The mirror of the stream that shatters quick  
And breaks the image of a girl the Queen  
Believed she saw until catastrophe  
Came thundering upon their Denmark home.

"Ophelia!"  
So Gertrude cries, but makes  
No move to keep the girl from danger she  
Has willingly embraced. For God himself  
May call each suicide a deviant,  
Denier of his will upon this earth,  
But Gertrude knows that circumstance can kill  
As surely as a knife. She'll understand  
A little more with every day that dawns:  
This girl did not bring death upon herself.


End file.
